Notoriously Morbid Ancient Mystic Matte - Cleopatra Swatches & Review

17 November 2016

Purchased with blogger discount

Carrie from Notoriously Morbid recently announced that the Ancient Mystic Matte range will be discontinued on January the 1st so I thought I'd better get my butt into gear and pop up my review for Cleopatra, the most luscious metallic blurple lipstick you'll ever see. If you love unconventional lip colours you'll definitely want to scoop Cleopatra up before it's gone and you might also like to take a look at the other six Ancient Mystic Mattes while you're at it. I reviewed one of the other shades, Hatshepsut, a few months back and will definitely be trying to purchase the others too.

Ancient Mystic Mattes come in a long cylindrical 7ml tube, which has a long slim doefoot shaped like a flattened oval. I found this applicator really easy to work with and did not use a lip brush for the lip swatch below.

Formula overview:
Notoriously Morbid's liquid matte formula is one of my favourites, with a thin but easy to control formula and generally excellent opacity. Most are opaque in one coat, though they can be layered easily if needed and will not clump, streak or stick to themselves during the dry down. There's no need to keep your lips parted while they dry, as many formulas require, because of the non-tackiness and fairly quick dry-down, yet they never fully set to a transfer-resistant state. You'll still get transfer with the Mystic Mattes, although obviously less than with a creamy lipstick and they tend to wear away evenly like a regular lipstick, instead of mostly in the centre, as I often experience with liquid mattes.
Some shades are drying but most are more clingy than anything. I do not experience any feathering or bleeding with any of them, they can be smudged if touched or smeared, but will not otherwise migrate. They have a faintly sweet scent. The Ancient Mystic Mattes are supposed to be slightly thicker than the regular Mystic Mattes and they have heavier pigments which can reportedly cause some settling in the tube although this hasn't been a problem with the colours I have.

Cleopatra is described as a 'true blurple'. It's a rich, metallic navy blue in a blackened purple base with mostly opaque colour payoff - there is a degree of patchiness that isn't visible from a normal viewing distance but may bother you. It wore for just under six hours on me and wasn't drying. Although I don't typically wear a lot of blue, the metallic glowy goodness of Cleopatra is just too good to resist.